An upstate New York mom and son have been charged with allegedly stashing her dead boyfriend’s remains in her basement for months — pouring bleach on it to hide the stench — while the mom used his social security benefits for shopping sprees.
Wendy Stone, 63, and her 24-year-old son Cody James Stone were charged Thursday with unlawful concealment of a corpse, a felony, for allegedly stashing Kenneth Crisman’s body in the basement of their home in Rochester, the Democrat & Chronicle reported.
The 66-year-old’s body was found wrapped up and stored in a plastic recycling bin last September — around nine months after he is believed to have died from a fentanyl overdose in late 2022, authorities have said.
Wendy Stone was first arrested last month and hit with federal charges for allegedly continuing to collect her dead partner’s benefits, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.
“Stone failed to notify anyone of Crisman’s death, instead, moving his body to the basement of their residence and continuing to collect his benefits,” Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Testani said.
“Stone wrapped Crisman’s body, and placed it into a plastic recycling bin, periodically pouring bleach on his body to prevent a foul odor,” Tsetani alleged.
Soon after Crisman’s death, Stone activated his benefits debit card with a new PIN, and then spent the next several months draining his account, spending at least $7,902 at stores and restaurants, prosecutors said.
Stone was captured shopping with her son at a Walmart in August 2023 using benefits from Crisman’s debit card, according to the federal complaint, with additional surveillance of her visiting an ATM in June 2023 to make withdrawals.
She carried on collecting her own benefits while also collecting her dead partner’s, the feds said.
“It was just a shocking kind of thing to be happening in a pretty peaceful neighborhood,” neighbor Patty Borges-Madden told WHAM after Stone’s federal arrest.
Federal authorities charged Stone with theft of government funds, aggravated identity theft, and making a false statement to obtain social security benefits, charges that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
